Hello again eveybody.

Time has flown since I wrote my last entry on here! Although most of our days have been spent lounging about on the beach or on big comfy cushions on the decking area of the bar next door.

We did get a tour of the island at the beginning of last week. We got loaded into the back of a pick up truck and driven all over the place. First stop was the Chinese temple of the island. To be honest, it was quite tacky and looked like something you would find at Disneyland rather than a real temple. But then we went to a gorgeous beach up on the north side of the island and went for a bit of a dip in the water. There was a little island further out that you could walk to when the tide was out but unfortunately is was in when we were there. Then we went to see the national park where the waterfalls are which was very pretty, but one of the girls, Rosie, went off exploring and came back saying she'd seen a pretty big spider. Eek. After that we were taken to a really nice little resturant that also made ice cream on the premises. I tried taro ice cream, which is a thai fruit, and it was actually quite nice. They have sweetcorn flavoured ice cream here (McDonalds do a sweetcorn sundae!) but I have been staying away from that one.

A few nights ago we also got taken to the night market, which is a huge place with loads of stalls and tables so you can go and eat some really cheap but really tasty food. A fresh mango smoothie and a massive bowl of noodles plus some meat on a stick cost me 70 baht, which is about 1 pound 40.

Wednesday daytime we got taken to our schools for a tour and to intoduce ourselves to the children. It was quite nerve wracking, especially because we weren't expecting to have to interact with the children much on that day but we were left alone with each class for about 10 mins trying to ask the children basic questions like 'what is your name?' and 'how old are you?' We got some mixed reactions, some classes just stared blankly in silence, others giggled and laughed. We did get a break with one class though, as one of the girls was 10 that day and we got the whole class to sing happy birthday. In another, there was one girl standing up to keep asking us questions. Afterwards, Rosie and I went for a test Scuba dive at a dive center, who's owner we had met the night before. We got all set up in our gear and swam down to the bottom of the 3m pool. It was quite a weird sensation at first but it was good. I did have problem 'equalising' (basically popping) my ears though, but apprently that's a problem that can be overcome, it just takes longer in some people then others. I think I might look into doing a course over on Koh Tao after we've finished here, depending on the prices, amongst other things.

Thursday was the first proper day of teaching and we had P.3 and P.6 (pretty much the equivelent of year 3 and year 6). In P.3 there is one little girl called Lucy, who's English was very good (we're guessing she has some kind of English heritage with a name like that) and who managed to explain the instructions to the class of some of the games we were trying to get them to play. We had finished everything we had planned for the lesson with about 15 mins to spare but luckily we'd bought some balloons along. The kids loved them and we played a colour game before letting them burst the balloons (we were a bit stuck as we only had 12 balloons and 18 children!). P. 6 were really quiet at first, but we soon got them to start talking in English by playing a game with them (which they kept cheating at, so I was always the person left in the middle!). Overall, it was a really good and fun first day, if not a little bit tiring! We've got to teach P.1 first thing on Monday though, which will be interesting, as their leve of Thai, let alone English, is probably not going to be very high!

We've been really lucky and we all have Fridays off from teaching, so yesterday we all went for an explore of the island, starting at Haad Rin and walking down the coast for as long as we could. We bumped into a Danish couple, who we then met at the bar next to our resort later for a few drinks (mostly non-alcoholic Coconut Lassi's, which are gorgeous smoothie drinks made with fruit and yoghurt). The guy told us a story about how he woke up one morning, whilst staying on the next island Koh Samui, and saw a big spider next to him, fang marks in his arm and a red line starting at the bite and leading up his arm, which apparently is a sign of blood poisoning. It was fine though, it was just a case of going to the pharmacy and getting some medicine and some bed rest for a few days. And he did say he had been to Thailand 15 times and his dad used to live here and that was the only spide story he had to tell. It didn't make me feel much better though!

But so far, no spiders and I'm still enjoying the Thai food (albeit the non-spicy dishes!).

Also, in an attempt to answer some of your lovely messages...

Chole - you are welcome to come and stay! I have half a double bed and a single bed in my room free so there's plenty of room. In fact, that invitation goes out to everybody!

Clair - Don't worry, I am empyting my shoes, checking behind my cutains and looking under the toilet seat everyday for creepy crawlies. So far it just a lot of gekkos and a huge cockroach that lives in the overflow bit of my sink.

Clair's Mum - I have seen quite a few monks, one outside KFC! Also 2 female monks which are apprently a rare site.

Shaun & Fiona - I'm glad to hear you're looking after Ian for me, I hope he's not being too much touble ;)

Nanny and Grandad - Haha, I don't think I want to know much more about your 'mooning'! But I would like some special advice from Nan about how to get a big enough bag that you can fit everything in and it won't break as I know Nan is an expert on the subject.

Mum - I know I told you that I was fine with the minah birds, but I forgot to tell you one of the other girls was standing outside smoking in Bangkok and got quite freaked out when the bird started saying 'Sa wat dee ka' (hello in Thai).

Dad - You haven't actually left me a message so you can't complain that your jealous that mum gets a mention in my blog and you haven't! But there you go, you've been mentioned anyway!

Everybody else, thank you for all your lovely messages. It is really nice to read them all!